Laurie Anderson

Laurie Anderson worked for the Olympic organization in Athens, was NASA's artist-in-residence for a time, and has been finding some satori taking long walks down archaic roads in Greece, Sri Lanka and England. Add on the fact that Anderson lives only a handful of blocks from the scar of 9/11, and you can imagine how all of this -- the ancient past and the ancient future, recent tragedy and tragedies-in-the-making -- will color her newest touring performance piece, "The End of the Moon," which is largely talk, some music, and a cosmic slide show.

Anderson is taking a bold step in the midst of calamitous events to simplify her art and ask some of the bigger questions about time and beauty, purpose and movement. The artist will be speaking of new technological marvels even while she reduces her own dependence on the monolithic machinery she used to cart from show to show. "I hate to sound like a salesman," she says, "but really, it used to take two huge trucks to carry what I can now put into two briefcases." Audiences can expect the show to be cool and strangely intimate, smart and somewhat oblique, like most of her work. And remember, it was Anderson who said it first, back in 1981, in her first record, "O Superman": "Here come the planes, so you better get ready."